Howard McGhee
Trumpet
About
Howard McGhee was a pioneering bebop trumpeter, composer, and arranger who helped establish the bebop trumpet idiom alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro. Known for his extraordinary technical facility, commanding upper-register playing, and distinctive wide, crackling vibrato, he recorded prolifically during the 1940s and won the Down Beat Readers Poll for trumpet in 1949. He performed with Lionel Hampton, Andy Kirk, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker, contributing to landmark Dial Records sessions that documented bebop's development. His compositions included "McGhee Special," "Night Mist," and "Carvin' the Bird." He also worked as an arranger for Billy Eckstine, Woody Herman, and Charlie Barnet. After a difficult period in the 1950s, he resurged in the 1960s through his association with promoter George Wein and the Newport Jazz Festival, and devoted his later years to jazz ministry at Saint Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City and teaching younger musicians.
Trivia
McGhee participated in the historic jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House in Harlem, venues widely regarded as the birthplace of bebop. Around August 1944, he, Dizzy Gillespie, and Fats Navarro jammed together in a Chicago park at 4:00 a.m., an undocumented meeting of the first three nationally recognized bebop trumpeters. His parents, Orsel and Minnie McGhee, were involved in the landmark Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), which ruled racially restrictive housing covenants unconstitutional.
Early Life
Howard McGhee was born on March 6, 1918, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His half-brother, a guitarist, provided his earliest musical instruction. During high school, McGhee demonstrated notable versatility, learning piano, tenor saxophone, and clarinet alongside his trumpet studies. The decisive turning point came in 1935, at age seventeen, when he encountered recordings by Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge. Eldridge's sophisticated harmonic approach and improvisational agility inspired McGhee to commit fully to the trumpet. His family relocated from Tulsa to Detroit, Michigan, during the Great Migration, where the city's vibrant club scene and thriving African American musical community shaped his development. He launched his professional career in midwestern territory bands and also took on booking musicians for a Detroit nightclub, building connections that established his reputation as a talented performer, composer, and arranger.
Howard McGhee Solos
1947
Trumpet solo - Relaxin' At Camarillo - 1947
4/4 swing in C major at 200 BPM
Trumpet solo - Cheers - 1947
4/4 swing in B♭ major at 227 BPM
Trumpet solo - Carvin' The Bird - 1947
4/4 swing in E♭ major at 232 BPM
Trumpet solo - Stupendous - 1947
4/4 swing in E♭ major at 234 BPM
1946
Trumpet solo - Max Making Wax - 1946
4/4 swing in C major at 329 BPM
Trumpet solo - Bebop - 1946
4/4 swing in F minor at 316 BPM